Will Reid Wilson, Sr. (1912-2005)

Will Reid Wilson was born July 29, 1912 in Dallas, Texas. He
graduated from Highland Park High School and earned an
undergraduate degree in geology at the University of Oklahoma
before attending Southern Methodist University Law School, where he
graduated first in his class.

Following graduation, Wilson joined the Dallas firm of Turner,
Rogers, and Wynn and served as an aide to Dallas mayor Woodall
Rogers, who served from 1939 to 1947. He served in the U.S. Army
during World War II, earning the rank of major. Stationed in New
Guinea and the Philippines, Wilson commanded a field artillery
battalion and received a bronze star for heroism.

After the war Wilson returned to Dallas and was elected district
attorney of Dallas County, serving two terms from 1946 to 1950. He
was elected to the Texas Supreme Court in 1950 and took office in
1951. He served as an associate justice until June 1956, when he
resigned to run for the office of state attorney general.

Wilson won the election and served as Texas attorney general
from 1957 to 1963. He received the Wymann Memorial Award for
outstanding American attorney general from the National Association
of Attorneys General in 1959. He later ran unsuccessful races for
the U.S. Senate and the Texas governorship before co-founding the
Austin law firm of Wilson, Kendall, Koch, and Randall. He served as
assistant U.S. attorney general during the Nixon administration
from 1969 to 1971, where he headed the criminal division of the
U.S. Department of Justice. He left shortly before the Watergate
break-in and later wrote a book, titled A Fool for a
Client, about his views on the demise of Nixon's
presidency.

In addition to his law practice and civil service, Wilson ran
two cattle ranches in Milam and Williamson counties. He was married
and had two children; his wife died in 1984. Wilson died December
14, 2005, at the age of ninety-three. He was buried in the Texas
State Cemetery in Austin, next to his wife of thirty-six years.